Rapid Screening Electrochemical Methods for Aflatoxin B₁ and Type‐A Trichothecenes: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

In this work are presented methods for detection of aflatoxin B₁ and type‐A trichothecenes, based on the use of indirect competitive ELISA format coupled with a 96‐well screen‐printed microplate.

Electrochemical immunoassays for AFB₁, T‐2, and HT‐2 were performed and the activity of the alkaline phosphatase or horseradish peroxidase labeled enzymes were measured using intermittent pulse amperometry (IPA) as electrochemical technique. Using standard solutions of the target analyte the LOD of the assays were 0.3 and 0.2 ng ml⁻¹ for T‐2 and AFB₁ respectively, while the sensitivity was 1.2 ng ml⁻¹ for both. For Aflatoxin B₁, a stability study of electrochemical plate was also performed. Moreover, the matrix effect was evaluated using two different extraction treatments from corn.

Keywords:

• Aflatoxin B₁
• type‐A trichothecene
• 96‐well screen‐printed microplate
• competitive ELISA

The authors wish to thank the Italian projects MIPAF ‘Aflarid’, PRIN‐2005, the European project ‘Biocop’, and the EUROLAB S.r.l. for financial support.